My Door

So my door (if you refer back to my last post) literally just rotted off of my mud walls. It was a bummer when I tried closing my door one day and the frame fell away.

So I called the carpenter to ask him to come fix it. His grand plan? Switch the left frame with right frame. Okay... one rotten side for another.... Sigh.

A few more days pass and another carpenter comes who actually does fix it. Of course this doesn't go as planned either. Just as he finished the frame it started to rain and work was called off. So I had a big hole in my wall without a door. Then the light rain that was falling turned into a downpour. So as I'm struggling to save my room from destruction my house father totally comes through for me and covers my room with a local mat. I chilled with the local mat for a door for 2 more days and then my door was finally put in.

The cultural minuses: making up crazy ways to fix a door, not coming to fix the door when you say you will, stopping work because it's raining leaving me door-less
The cultural pluses: Not letting me pay for the labor because I'm their guest in the village (even after 7+ months)

And I have to say that to me, it was an okay trade-off. I'm a sucker for hospitality, kindness, and hilarity. And looking back this was kind of funny.

My old frame

Mat for a door

(my greatest regret actually getting the door fixed though is losing the "love the one who love you" quote above my door)

My new door (I never took a finished picture, but rest assured I have a working door now)

Cham Cham. Yeah, I ate it. This has nothing to do with my door. Think of it as a bonus.

 

Sorry for the delay in blog posts friends and family (Mom). I was feeling under the weather a bit but I'm all good now!

Let me make good on my last blog post- climbing trip.
During the All Vol conference my friend and I bought a rock climbing trip offered from another volunteer. This trip we cashed in on at the end of May. I took a bus down to Kumasi and met up with Ran there. After a bunch of small trotro's and taxi's we reached our fellow PCV's Nathan's site. It took me about 12 hours to reach his house (imagine I-70 with potholes so large that your entire tire could fall into it).

We were met with an awesome offer of homemade pizza. Delicious. We may or may not have dropped one on the floor, picked it up, dusted it off, and put it back into the toaster oven for a few extra minutes and ate it.

The next morning I awoke to rain and I had my hopes dashed to go climbing. However the rain was light and let up so we were still able to climb. We reached the rock around 10 or so and after an hour approach were able to touch the rock face. It took about 7 hours to get up and descend. Nathan led the route while Ran, Andy (mutual PCV along for the trip), and I climbed up after him. Rich would come up the rear and clean the route (collecting the equipment left in the rock).

The descent was scary. Rappels have always scared me. Everything was done with awesome grace though and out 250 feet repel went off without and troubles.

Hilarious times were had and it was definitely one of the best trips in Ghana I've had.

Since that trip I've also gone to a meeting about kayayo's. A kayayo is a name given to a person who has left their village to go be a type of porter or seller in a larger city. This is becoming a bigger and bigger problem because more young women (as most kayayo's are women) are leaving their villages and flocking to cities where they have no shelter and expose themselves to all kinds of risks (sexual assault, robbery, malaria, etc. etc.).

Personally in my own village I've had 6 girls leave (all whom I knew) and only 1 has returned. It's sad the pressure the family's are under. A mother (who is not allowed to own land and therefore does not farm) with a family of 5-10 children has almost no source of income but is expected to provide the soups that accompany all meals. The money needed to buy the vegetables and spices is also needed to pay for school fees for their children and other odds and ends. You can see how a mother may be pressured to send a child into a city they know nothing about to try to make some extra money and perhaps have 1 less mouth to feed.

Add onto my list of things to do: Hold kayayo workshop in village.

Village life is going well though. My villagers have all started to construct their rabbit hutches. I hope by August to have purchased the rabbits and have the project completly underway.

Thank you all for your letters and until next time!

Yours truly

Nathan, Ran, and Andy

The view from the top!

Next post, the story of what happened with my door.

Woken up and still smelling the sh*t

Mary and I are walking down a road looking for cattle. We've left her village and are now ready to create some more delicious tea in Yapalsi.
---
"All right, are we ready for this again?"
"Yup, let's do it."
"Okay I'll bring my bike so we can get it back."
"Yes definitely."
... ...
"Hello? Gaafaraaa...?" (excuse me)
"Okay Mary how do we tell me them we want their cow poop?"
"Umm..."
*Begin expansive hand movements* "Cow... poop.... we want... make-heyhowdoyousayfertilizer?"
"Dang man I totally forgot! Uhh... we want make vegetables pretty. Cow poop and vegetables small time pretty! They will be big! I guess that's as good as I can get it."
"Do you think they understand?"
"Eh. Maybe. Let's just get the poop."
... ...
"Dude this poop is like especially watery."
"Yeah I know. Let's not get too much like we did last time."
...
"Okay that's enough. Let's drag it back to the bike."
*struggling*
"Oh my god it's juicing on us! DUDE. GROSS."
"Diana, it's okay. This happened to me yesterday."
"This bag is so heavy. Grossgrossgross! God just another day in Ghana."
"Hey, why don't I bring the bike over here to us?"
"Ohhh."
...
"Dude literally this bag is dripping all over my bike. What's with this cow poop?"
"I don't... ohh it rained last night!"
"Ohhh. Grand."
---

All the Yapalsi people loved seeing the two of us hauling around a bag of cattle dung. Haha.

 Totally separate event/topic now.- Leveling the ground in my compound.

My family repaved the inside of their compound with cement, but this isn't the same process as we would see in the States. It begins a week or two in advance. My family slowly dug up the existing floor in my compound and then beat the hardened clay that was dug up with a stick to turn it into small pieces.

Then on a determined date everybody from the community (the women and children, no men/boys) shows up the early morning. They begin to shuffle buckets and buckets of dirt into the compound. One bucket at a time per foot until the whole compound has a fresh layer of dirt. This takes all morning up until noon prayers.

After the small break everybody shows back up, one by one. water is sprayed on the dirt and the real fun begins. Everybody begins to sing and pound the dirt flat with check marked shaped pieces of wood.  This video is one of my most favorite and I suggest you watch it! True Ghanian culture right here.

 They're all in sync!

 The floor leveler

 It's a dirty messy process. Everybody really enjoyed that I helped, sang, and danced.

 The rain washes away the clay of buildings so boiled cow poop added with some plants creates a mixture that keeps the buildings from melting away. Once I thought I finished playing with poo I come home and see my mother painting a whole side of a building with it haha. Just can't get away from it!

(also notice how nice the new floor is!)

Next blog post, my hiking trip!

Wake up and smell the sh*t!

     It was a beautiful morning. The chickens, donkeys, children, goats, dogs, guiniea fowl, and everything else that likes to announce to the world a new day is here were more subdued (or perhaps I was more tolerant this particular morning). Mary and I are discussing plans for breakfast (bread vs. oats) when a "Mary... Mary... Mary..." drifts through the wire mesh door.
     We look at each other, horror on faces.
     What time is it??
     7 AM. Dear lord we have slept in. How could we have? How did the chickens, donkeys, children, goats, dogs, and guniea fowl NOT wake us up at 5:30am? Okay, maybe starting Inception at 10pm (about an hour past our normal bedtime) might have contributed to our slightly stronger slumber...
     Quick, get dressed in a presentable fashion! Cover your shoulders, hide your knees!
     Walk outside into the compound and announce to all, "Desiba, tim maa sim, aghbira" (Morning, hows the weather, how did you sleep). After the pleasantries it's down to business. "You are welcome. You all have come to see the fertilizer. Toh come come is just here in this blue bucket. You see? Uh huh. So we make this by..."

[24hrs prior]

     "Hey Mary, what's up? I just got to Nyong-Gumah. I brought our burlap sack."
     "Okay cool, I have our gardening gloves..."

     Mary and I walk around town carrying a trough and a dust pan.We joke about stalking some goats following closely in step with them, ready to collect any... "fresh samples." We greet the villagers and explain to them we're getting "bindi" to make "culum." (poop, fertilizer)
     However it becomes very apparent that the only way to go is to go find some cows. With two helpful Ghanian friends Mary and I trudge off to a Fulani household (cattle herders).
---
"We go to Fulani house, just here. We collect the cow sh*t. Uh HUH, it is true. Yes yes. You just go and get the cow sh*t." ("poop" isn't in their normal vocabulary however, "sh*t" is)
---
     "OH that is a FRESH sample! Get that one. Here here. There.
     "Mary, for real?"
     "That's the good stuff man."
     "Ok then let's get this one."
     "Wow that one probably just came out of the cow"
     *10 minutes of laughter*
     "Come. Les hurry"
     "Baba! Wait no, here use these gloves!"
     "Is okay."
     "....Dude. He's getting after it. Thank god he's helping us."
----
"You fill the bag with cow sh*t. When your bag weigh like small child is okay. Tie the bag on a big stick and put in bucket with water. You don't let the bag touch the bottom of the bucket."
----
     "Holy sh*t dude!! This bag is so heavy!"
     "Wow."
     "Ohmygod! Try not to let it touch you!"
     " Baba can your friend take this on your bike?"
     "Eeee." (Yes)
-----
"Then you put rubber around the top so the water does not leave. The sun is hot and will take your water. Every 3 days you take the stick and you move it up and down, like tea. After 10 days you are finished. You take the water and put on your farm and your vegetables will be beautiful!" ("rubber" is the term used for plastic. We enjoy it as much as you)
----
     "Dude man we're lucky Baba and his friend came. Getting that bag of sh*t back would have been terrible."
     "Oh for real."
     "And Baba really didn't mind much about getting all the poop."
     "Haha nope."
     "Cool let's go rest and chill. We can make some dinner and watch a movie later!"
     "That sounds like a wonderful idea."

*some dialog written in "Ghanian English"

(Great bed hair!)

(Mary, partner in crime)

To be continued, the other half of the story at a place I call... home.

The month of April

Sorry everybody I've been feeling very lazy and couldn't seem to convince myself to write a blog post. Until now!

So since my last post a lot has happened.

PC held an All Volunteer conference where every single PCV in Ghana attended.161 of us were there. During the day we had food security talks and during the night many different things happened. Fund raising in the shape of...
     Silent Auctions: It all started out civil. People milled about and wrote down what they were going to bid for whatever items were graciously donated. And then somebody donated a package of Double Stuff Oreos and two boxes of Cheezits. Whenever PCV's get together inevitably the conversation will eventually turn to food. Food dreams, food sent, food ate, food cooked, food missed, anything food. Well when these Cheezits hit the floor it was a bidding massacre. I think one Cheezit box topped out at 26 or so cedis (about 11% of our monthly "salary"). It was amazing. Personally I walked out of there with some ipod speakers and a cooling blanket (we will see how well that works in the months coming).
     Date Auctions: Hilarious. PCV's allowed themselves to be bid on and had a bunch of "dates" lined up. Probably the funniest thing about this was how PCV's would sell (through hilarious dialog) their dates to other PCV's.The big one probably sold for about 400 cedis- a trip to a casino for a group of 4 I believe. Way to get after it PCV's (all the proceeds went to Gender and Youth Development activities so everybody justified it by saying, "it's for the children"). Ran and I pooled our money together and bought a trip from a volunteer in the Eastern region to go hiking in the mountains with some rock climbing involved. Really excited.

There was also a crafts fair where PCV's sold items their town was selling. I bought a painting on a whim (PC was so wise/cruel by giving us our transportation reimbursement right before the crafts fair. Who cares if I can't afford to get home! I have a painting!) There were ear rings, necklaces, kente, fabric, bagts, shoes, shea butter, t shirts, laptop cases, and a lot of other things I've forgotten.

Prom night! Theme: 2 yard togo party. A definite style here in Ghana is to buy "2 yards" of fabric and wrap it around you like a dress or towel. Really very extremely confortable.

My favorite thing of All Vol though- Talent Show. Man take a bunch of people who decide they would like to spend two years in a foreign country (let's say Ghana for example) and put them all into the same room.... it's sure to be an amazingly funny time. Magic shows, stand up comedy, fire twirling, singing, video, musicians, Irish dancing, poems... shoot I can't even remember them all. I was gasping for air most of the time trying to stop myself from laughing because my sides hurt so much. Maybe next year I will do something. Got some brainstorming to do haha.

All in all All Vol was alllll right. Very pleased with it all.

So also I've been building fuel efficient stoves. So far I've built 2, one in Yapalsi within my compound and one in Nyong-Gumah in Mary's village. Mary came to Yapalsi to help me build my stove and then I went to her village and helped her build her a stove. Team work!

The first stove turned out to be a challenge. The clay up in the Northern Region is different from the south and we needed to use some ant hills to add it to give it extra strength. This turned out to be a very tiring expedition and Mary and I happened to pick the hottest day to do it. We literally roasted and sweat our way through this stove. By adding the ant hill it made our mixture heavier/denser though and our stove kind of bowed out. The more we added to build the stove up the more it expanded. Mary was the first to notice this phenomenon. So we took a lunch break and wait for the clay stove to dry up a little and then built it up again. My family has been using it to cook so I think it was a success! Less firewood is consumed using this fuel efficient stove (you know, thus the name?) so hopefully it frees up a little time for my family.

The second stove also had its own challenges. This time around we were determined not to have our stove bow out again so we decided less ant hill. Making our mixture again we realized that it was extremely silty and sandy. It was very confusing because we just couldn't seem to add enough....something to make it sticky. Mary's counterpart recruited his two friends to go back out (on another incredibly hot nasty day) and find a new ant hill because the verdict was the ant hill wasn't good quality. Once they returned with the new ant hill it all went very smoothly. We pretty much used all ant hill and ditched our original plans haha.

With this stove we also made a few improvements. We added a larger hole for the smoke to escape, a bigger opening for firewood, and airpockets so the fire doesn't get smothered (all problems encountered with my stove in my compound). This second stove should have it's first trial tomorrow or so!

Shout out to Allahji, Mary's CP who definitely helped us poor light skinned people battle our way through making these stoves. Sunburned, sweaty, smelly, tired, and close to delirious, he definitely help keep us together.

Stove 1- dubbed "Fat Boy" 

Stove 2- dubbed "Tall Boy"

Why not use the extra clay to patch up some holes in my house?

 

Scaring children on a daily basis.

Mary, I, and ant hill

 

Jaw dropping sunset at Mary's Village after a hard day of stove making. I had a "this is where I should be" moment upon seeing this.

Nom Nom

IST

We just had our In Service Training. This was a training event for my swear in group. We all got back together and talked about our past 3 months at site and plans for our next 21 months at site.

It's a little scary how fast the time is passing by. Just two months ago I was living in what I thought was a small town (of about 1,000 people or so) and I thought I was roughing it without running water. Now I find myself in a village of about 400 people without electricity or running water.

I've never been happier in Ghana.

At the close of 3 months at site I realize I haven't done too many tangible things. Hearing everybody's stories about what they've been doing definitely made me realize the things I haven't been doing. However I came to understand something, and that is I have 21 months to do things still.  I'm here to learn just as much as I am here to teach. So I've gotten some great ideas and heard some really good plans and I think I can really take it and run with it.

During IST I found the sessions we had seemed to drag on and on though. There were definitely times when I started drifting off but I think that may have had more to do with my narcolepsy? Impossible to tell but I am happy be out of that stuffy room!

And I was lucky enough to have my birthday fall on IST where I could celebrate it with everybody. Somehow the group even managed to get a cake to me! Cakes are not really made in Ghana so I'm not sure how they got it to me but it was much appreciated. So I had some less enjoyable presentations and a more enjoyable cake on my birthday. All in all a successful birthday.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and I hope everything is going well!